Christmas in July 2019: Ed South

Christmas in July 2019: Ed South - host of "What's Your Favorite Movie?" podcast available on iTunes, Spotify and Spreaker. Twitter: @edsouth, @WYFMoviePodcast

1. What is your favorite Saturday Night Live Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year's sketch?

Two of my all-time favorite SNL Christmas skits are both very simple...Steve Martin's Christmas Wish address, where he wishes for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace and also for $30 million tax-free in a Swiss bank account. I also like when John Malkovich reads The Night Before Christmas to the group of kids. Oh, and even though these are more associated with Thanksgiving, I adore the music videos for (Do It On My) Twin Bed and Back Home Baller. Those are both painfully funny and also catchy songs!

2. Do you most look forward to watching holiday episodes from series? Specials? Movies? Animation? or, all of it?

When we start inching towards the end of October, and the small handful of essential Halloween specials have all been watched, I turn my attention to all things Christmas themed in television and film!  There's dozens of animated specials that without viewing would make the holiday season incomplete. There are also plenty of great Christmas movies that are as essential as presents and egg nog. But my real passion in Christmas viewing is digging up unseen (to me) Christmas episodes of vintage television shows. It's fun each year to discover another series that I did not know has a Christmas episode and track that show down via Netflix DVD or YouTube or other means. I have a dozen or so DVD compilations of old Christmas episodes that I enjoy watching every year also. Donna Stone throwing the hospital Christmas party,  Samantha Stephens taking the orphaned kid to the North Pole and trimming the tree with Ricky and Lucy are all required moments in my holiday season.



3. What's your favorite soundtrack from a holiday program? (it doesn't have to have been officially released as an album--just what program features your favorite collection of music?)

My favorite holiday soundtrack would have to be A Charlie Brown Christmas which provides so much atmosphere for most of the holiday season. I get excited every single time I hear "Linus & Lucy" played on the radio. (It's a shame they won't play Charlie Brown music all year.) Besides all the wonderful music that is associated with the Charlie Brown Christmas special, the CD release of the soundtrack features great covers of classic Xmas tunes provided by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. I've had the privilege of hearing the entire soundtrack album performed live by a local jazz ensemble accompanied by a screening of the 1965 animated special on a couple of occasions.

4. What one program are you patiently (or impatiently) waiting for me to review on this blog?

When it comes to the content of the Christmas TV History blog, I most enjoy being introduced to shows and movies I'm not familiar with. I'm not one to read reviews of things I've already seen but from the blog I have discovered many wonderful movies and obscure specials.  Not only did Joanna turn me on to the wonders of The Waltons Christmas movie The Homecoming when she appeared on my podcast, but most recently I was able to track down a copy of the 1987 TV-movie Christmas Comes to Willow Creek which I had heard about for years via this very blog!


5. What change in Christmas entertainment have you noticed over the years? Do you like the trend?

Trends in Christmas Entertainment: Well, it seems in the last few years that content providers - TV networks, cable channels, streaming services and even Hollywood studios - have noticed the popularity of Christmas entertainment. We seem to be getting more celebrity driven prime time variety specials on the big networks. Cable channels realize that they can't run Christmas Vacation, Elf and Die Hard too many times in December. I also love that the big networks have brought back so many of the classic animated specials that had previously moved on to smaller stations. The Grinch, Santa Claus is Coming To Town and even Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol have all returned to network television after long hiatuses. However, I think the biggest trend would have to be the impact of the Hallmark Channel and their blizzard of 191 new Christmas movies every season which in turn has led Lifetime and Netflix and several others to beef up their original Christmas movie offerings too. While the Hallmark movies are warm and inviting, they do almost all tend to blend together after a few weeks but some of the other guys are tinkering with the format a little bit and offering some neat movies. Netflix' The Christmas Chronicles was a blast and Lifetime's Melissa Joan Hart vehicle A Very Nutty Christmas was a goofy fun flick, just as two examples from 2018.